


Chain

by BuffyRowan



Series: Not a Fairy Tale [2]
Category: Batman (1966)
Genre: Clancy feels more guilt than Bruce, Kinda Fluffy, M/M, kinda bittersweet
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2016-10-05
Updated: 2016-10-05
Packaged: 2018-08-19 16:14:48
Rating: Not Rated
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 292
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/8216354
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/BuffyRowan/pseuds/BuffyRowan
Summary: He didn't want to be another chain holding him back





	

It broke Clancy's heart, some days, to look at the lad. Because here he was, near forty, with none of the things he should have--deserved to have--in his life. He should have found a girl who adored him for the fine, honorable, sweet man he was. Should have married her and started to fill that big, empty house with children. He deserved that amount of joy and love.

Instead, Gotham kept the lad chained up with almost and nearly-there parts of what he deserved. Bruce Wayne may never have found a wife to give him children, but he'd adopted a boy who idolized him and respected him and loved him as a son should. And the boy brought along with him a sweet old aunt, who mothered both orphans equally, balancing old Alfred's paternal care of the boys. Bruce did good work with all his money and influence, and what Bruce couldn't reach, Batman could.

The other chain, that was. Being Batman, working to protect Gotham, it held Bruce back from so much. Travel would leave the city unprotected, or Robin without backup. Even being friends with a person was a carefully stage-managed act to give the appearance of no secrets for Bruce while simultaneously hiding Batman.

The first time Bruce had approached him, Clancy turned him down. He wouldn't be another chain holding Bruce back from all the possibilities. Years later, he'd been forced to reconsider. Hiding the love he and Bruce shared wasn't a chain holding Bruce back. It was the cusion that kept the rest of the chains from galling. And that was the only thing that made the necessary lies and sneaking around palatable, the only thing that kept Clancy from feeling like a cradle robber.


End file.
